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Machiavelli With Malaprops

And Lowden helped too—she turned out to be a disastrous candidate. The chickens for checkups remark would have killed her by itself, perhaps, but she was much better on paper than in person, and she was totally unprepared for Reid to meddle in her primary. When the insurgent Republican Sharron Angle won in a landslide in June, she had two disparate influences to thank: the conservative Club for Growth and Team Reid. The latter then spent the next six weeks defining Angle as outside the mainstream—she was of great assistance also—and by September the race essentially was over, even if the national media didn’t realize it yet.

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The performances of both daily newspapers in Las Vegas were amazing to watch. The Las Vegas Review-Journal was nothing short of obsessed with defeating Reid, with both the publisher, Sherman Fredrick, and the editor, Tom Mitchell, openly anti-Reid. There was not even a nod to balance; this was an all-out war.

At one point, Reid joked to a newspaper official that he hoped the RJ would go out of business. He was kidding—or was he? Right after Reid won, Mitchell and Frederick were removed from their positions. No explanation was ever given, but many insiders speculated that the timing could not be coincidental. When you shoot to kill the king, or in this case Prince Harry, best not miss.

The Sun, where Reid’s late mentor, O’Callaghan, had always protected him, was all in. Greenspun, the scion of the family, met with me early in 2010 and told me he was dedicated to reelecting Reid. How far would he go? When Reid performed abominably in the final debate with Angle, I wrote how Reid had lost, with the headline, “Reid loses debate.” Greenspun called the editors and had it changed. (During the 2012 campaign, he also killed a column I wrote criticizing Reid for his Romney-didn’t-pay-taxes assault. I refused ever to write a column for him again.)

At a forum a few weeks ago, Greenspun went so far as to brag that the Sun had saved the country during the shutdown crisis by preserving Reid’s seat for him in 2010. Yes. That happened.

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My relationship with Reid was good for many years after I was crossed off the blacklist. He came on my program, a nightly interview show that began on cable in 2001 and ascended to all three NBC affiliates in 2010, a few times a year and, as he does whenever he speaks back home, made news. We even had some fun. One time shortly after he had published his memoir, Searchlight: The Camp That Didn’t Fail, I put up the Amazon numbers that indicated it had sold more copies than my book about the 1998 governor’s race. Without missing a beat, Reid smiled, “That’s because I’m a better writer.”

I am now in a quiet period with the senator again. It could be argued that my June 2010 interview with Angle changed the race’s dynamics because I aggressively questioned her on some of her incendiary statements. Indeed, as she walked off the set, she turned around and said, “I bet some of that appears in ads for Reid.” She was right. But Reid doesn’t remember that. Indeed, Reid has not come on Ralston Reports since he submitted to an interview shortly after his reelection. And it has nothing to do with anything I have said or written about him, I have been told. Reid is fiercely protective of his family, especially his wife, Landra, but also his five children. I have written critical pieces about three of his children since Reid won reelection, and, I’m reliably told, he has not forgiven me for it.

He seems to be reveling in the twilight of his career, unconcerned about how he appears or what he says, even more so than usual.

The majority leader will probably let me out of the doghouse again one of these days, but I’m not holding my breath. He seems to be reveling in the twilight of his career, unconcerned about how he appears or what he says, even more so than usual. Just look at what he said during that tour of Nevada last week, making nasty comments about his same-state congressional colleagues.On the other hand, he continues to play the game as only he can, stroking Sandoval and sticking the knife in at the same time by touting the governor-who-might-want-to-be-senator’s embrace of Obamacare.

And Reid continues to move the pieces on the Nevada board, preparing to block the governor from running against him by going all in with Lucy Flores—the “demographically perfect” assemblywoman—in the lieutenant governor’s race. He cares because if the second in command is a Democrat, then Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval must stay—and will be blocked from challenging Reid in 2016. He is also, once again, meddling in a Republican primary. Reid does not want Sandoval’s anointed choice, a peripatetic, energized state senator named Mark Hutchison, to win the GOP nomination. SoI expect the meddler-in-chief to find a way to help Hutchison’s opponent, someone he considers the weaker candidate and with whom he has some history.

That candidate’s name is Sue Lowden.

Lamar Alexander might think “End of the Senate” belongs on his tombstone, but I’d argue that if anyone’s should read, “No permanent friends, no permanent enemies,” it is Harry Reid’s.

Jon Ralston, contributing editor at Politico Magazine, has covered Nevada politics for more than a quarter-century. He has worked for both major Las Vegas newspapers and now has his own site, email newsletter and television program.